Working at Mccann Erickson

Over the past week I have been working at Mccann Erickson in Prestbury. It is a great place to work. This is much to do with the settings and working environment. It is a refreshing change from normal office block buildings. Set in its own grounds you can walk around to clear your mind and think of new ideas. There are numerous meeting rooms, seating areas outside or the bistro where you can go to talk over ideas. During the week I have been sat having lunch with people sat by the side of the pool in the sun with wild rabbits roaming around the grass. It was surreal and felt more like a holiday than being at work! This makes for a better atmosphere between all the staff which can only help people be happy about coming to work and coming up with fresh new ideas.

I have a desk and Mac in the middle of the creative offices and the people have been really friendly and helpful. There are also 4 graduates on a 6 month contract which is reviewed at the end to see if they are upto the job. I have been working with them on ideas for a project for Sainsbury's and was involved in a number of meetings on the first day going over the brief and our ideas. I am impressed by the positivity that these meetings bring. Even the worst ideas are turned into something good which is a different approach to what I have come to expect. On the second day I was meant to be developing the better ideas for this but I was given another brief for a logo design for a collaboration of big companies in Buxton. A selection of ideas was to be pitched to the clients that evening so I had to work quickly and I came up with a few strong ideas. One of the designers was also working on the project so we had a lot to show them.

The next day we were told the meeting went well and they had narrowed their choice down to 2 logos, 1 of which was mine and one which was created by the other designer. I then needed to develop that idea with different fonts and colours. These are now going to be show to the clients for the final decision to be made.

Next day I was back involved in the Sainsburys work coming up with ideas following the final concept that we had decided to go with. This led to a meeting in the boardroom to go over the ideas. There was around 10 people in the meetin with only 3 from creative. The rest being from media, marketing and strategy. This is a good learning experience in itself as it shows research that goes into getting projects to work across all levels. The meetings are key to getting the best idea and we had a lot more of an idea what we wanted to go with.

The last day of the week involved me coming up with a logo for the concept. A name for the main idea and designs for the media output. Then I was set the task of typesetting a card for Mccann Erickson. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first week and look forward to seeing what the next week brings.